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Friday, May 25, 2007

MySQL: getting started for newbies

When MySQL first came out and started popping up all over the web in the e-commerce arena, if you were like me you looked at it as a wannabe. 'Call me in a few years when you grow up'. Yea, sometimes the Oracle in us goes to our heads a little to fast...

MySQL has really gone mainstream in the last few years. Companies that never would have considered MySQL in the past for critical database systems now have it on the forfront of their minds when evaluating different database technologies. Clustering, Replication, Monitoring are all well used now with MySQL and well tested.

Well, if I'm not using it now, how do I get on board?

Don't wait for your boss to evaluate it, that's for sure. Go get your MySQL VM set up on your laptop and stop thinking about it! It took me about 1/2 an hour to get the MySQL VM installed, up and running, and security settings all in place to try out the latest version of the MySQL Administrator up and running to play with.

Most likely you have various programs that are already using MySql as a backend - you just might not be maintaining them or playing with them because they are in your corporate environment instead of your production environment. This is the perfect oportunity to get started with MySQL.

Start by downloading the MySQL VM and get it runing on your PC or laptop.